I But even without these special cir­ Books cumstances I wculd have been fascin­ ated by the figure who had just come into the room . The first thing that struck me, apart from this un­ looked for air of benignity, was the extraordinary glow in the eyes beneath his bushy brows, huge forehead and tuft of grey hair . The expression in those remarkable eyes would have HO CHI MINH, by Jean invited the word “ingenuous”, except Lacouture, Allen Lane. The that I knew things about him which Penguin Press. $5.25. precluded any possibility that ingenu­ ousness might be among his attri­ THE DECISION of President John­ butes . son to call a halt to the US bombing of N orth Vietnam has already set When he asked me to have a cup many people asking “Why?” State­ of tea, or drew up a chair for me, or ments from military and political lead­ offered me a cigarette, it was as ers in America and South Vietnam though he were making apologies for have assured us that the war in Viet­ living among the trappings of a col­ nam is being won by the Allies. Why onial governor. Since then, people then, at this moment, should a halt have assured me this awkwardness be called? was an act . But can mere artifice really have produced that engaging No one can understand this situa­ manner and that extraordinary gift tion without attempting some study for making contact, a gift which at of the history of the Vietnamese nat­ once engendered a warm and direct ion and Ho Chi Minh, the man who exchange of views and gave a startling- leads it in the north, and who com­ ly fresh ring to commonplace words?" mands the love and respect of millions in the south as well. What kind of I myself felt this extraordinary man is he? Why can’t the Americans charm and freshness, coupled with re­ find anything worse to call him than markable informality, on the many a Communist boss? Why couldn’t the occasions when I met President Ho French, who hated him bitterly, ever Chi Minh during my three years in tind him guilty of anything but poli­ H anoi, from 1958 on. T he British tical crimes? What are his aims? Jean lawyer, Loseby who defended him Lacouture, who spent much time in tirelessly when he was arrested in Vietnam, has interviewed Ho Chi Hong Kong, and who returned to visit Minh himself many times and had him as President of the Democratic access to French records of the colonial R epublic of V ietnam in 1960, fifteen and post-colonial periods, provides years later, and Sir Stafford Cripps, many of the answers, in this full scale later to be Chancellor of the Exche­ biography. quer, who argued his case before the British Cabinet, were not proof against President Ho’s charisma is such it. Vo Nguyen Giap, who met him that everyone feels it. Lacouture is for the first tim e in 1940 and has an experienced and sophisticated remained his close comrade-in-arms journalist. His book is a fine lesson and politics ever since, describes this in objective writing, but read his meeting. “I found myself confronted description of his first meeting with by a man of shining simplicity. This H o. ”... I was steeped in the legend was the first time I had set eyes on of the man, trying to read every word him, yet already we were conscious that had been written about him . of deep bonds of friendship.” 74 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW December, 1968 Lacouture's book traces the deve­ characteristic of Ho Chi Minh, his lopment of Ho Chi Minh, from the capacity to inspire love and affection. time he was a tiny boy, named Cung, Throughout South-East Asia he is re­ through his various aliases of Nguyet ferred to almost universally as Bar Tat Thanh, Ba. Nguyen Ai Quoc, H o — Uncle Ho — and this is really Vuong, and Lin, lo the final Ho Chi meaningful. As Lacouture explains, Minh — He who Enlightens. there are two Vietnamese words con­ stantly used when Ho Chi Minh’s He investigates with care and ob­ name crops up in Vietnam — they are jectivity and yet always one feels that nghia, and hicu. his sympathy is held. Is Uncle Ho first a patriot and then a revolution­ Xghia is close to ihe idea contained ary, as many have claimed? My own in "duty" and the nghia binding Ho feeling is that he himself would see to the Vietnamese people is the consci­ these as two sides of the one coin. ousness of a two-way obligation, of He is certainly a brave man, surviv­ devotedness on the one side and loy­ ing out of "sheer stubborness”, long alty and discipline on the other. Add periods in prison and hospital with to this liieu, filial piety, and you get his ever recurring tuberculosis. something like the extraordinary bond of love that is felt by the people and At least twice, his terms of impri­ by Ho himself. As Lacouture says, sonment and brutal treatment, coupl­ no other leader in the world today ed with tuberculosis, have led to re­ is viewed by his followers as being ports of his death. How he didn't both inventor and protector, source die is a miracle, and when in a coma and guide, theory and practice, nat­ deep in the jungle, Vo Nguyen Giap ion and revolution, yogi and commis­ reports that with what he and every­ sar, goodnatured uncle and great war- one else thought were Ho’s dying leader. breaths he was outlining the course of the revolution for the immediate The growth of the man and his future. stature is accurately traced and doc­ umented. His development and be­ Ho is also a poet, writing in sharp, havior as a leader are reported with Chinese characters, verse that appeals the keen eyes of the French political by its humanist quality even in trans­ journalist, whose country has a unique lation. His verses contained in the background in Vietnam among Euro­ volume known as Prison Diary, reveal pean nations. many facets of his human qualities, the humor, compassion, tenderness But Ho’s attitude to America and and at times sharpness. The English- America's position in Vietnam is also language editior has been beautifully carefully defined and anyone who still written by the Australian poet Aileen is foolish enough to believe that the Palmer, working painstakingly from a Americans have been in Vietnam for word-by-word translation from the freedom's sake, should carefully read Vietnamese. page 227 and think for a second time. So Ho. Chi Minh is revealed by Lacouture, by no means a commu­ Lacouture as a patriot, a revolutionary, nist, and a man who must have done a poet, a man of courage, but also an enormous amount of research in a skilled publicist, a liberator, a nego­ his work as a journalist and the writ­ tiator of extraordinary patience and ing of his earlier book Le Vietnam wit, and a brilliant resistance leader. entre deux paix, as well as in this Lacouture also spends a lot of time book in which Vietnam and Ho Chi on what is probably the outstanding Minh are almost inseparable, finds 75 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW December, 1968 it in his heart to finish in this way: the law of falling profit we are not re­ "Uncle IIo is an old man now, and jecting or revising a time-honoured tired after so many years of fighting in theorem of political economy: we are ihe revolutionary cause. But even simply taking account of the un­ if . he does not live to see Viet­ doubted fact that the structure of the nam reunified and independent, all capitalist economy has undergone a the wav from the China border to fundamental change since that theorem Cape Camau, others — deputies whom was formulated. What is most essential he has moulded for no other purpose, about the change from competitive to and who have fought hard themselves monopoly capitalism finds its theoreti­ — will live to see it for him.” cal expression in this substitution." Who knows, perhaps President Here the authors claim too much Johnston's advisers, on the matter about bringing the (implied) obsolete of stopping the bombing, may have analysis of Karl Marx up to date. Take either read this book or taken a long, the absolute rise in surplus. In Volume level look at the facts which led to 3 of Capital, Marx argues that as the its writing. process of production and capital ac­ L o r r a in e Sa l m o n cumulation proceeds, the mass of sur­ plus value that can be and is approp­ riated must grow, and so must also MONOPOLY CAPITAL, by grow the absolute mass of profits accu­ Baran and Sweezy. Pelican mulated by the capitalist class. The Paperback, 390 p.p. $1.45. decline in the rate of profit itself leads to a rise in the mass of profits and THE PUBLICATION in Australia of in the mass of surplus. This is because a new and cheap edition of M onopoly the huge amounts of capital locked up Capital raises three important ques­ in investment, while they tend to real­ tions for Marxists: (a) how valid is the ise a sm aller rate of profit, swell the analysis? (b) how does it fit in with volume of total profits. other contemporary radical analysis of modern capitalism (such as Galbraith's Moreover Capital is not confined to The Modern Industrial State)? (c) how an analysis of competitive capitalism.